Newsday Honors Dr. Moreano

October 25, 2007 Every Sunday, Newsday presents another Everyday Hero - a special person who helps make New York a better place. Doctor Provides Free Medical Care to the Underprivileged. "It is a severe tragedy to see the effects of domestic violence on women who have been physically traumatized," says Dr. Edwin Moreano, 37. Since 2000, Moreano has volunteered his time and talents to the American Academy of Facial Plastic Surgeons" Domestic Violence Project. The program provides free reconstructive surgery for local women who have been the victims of domestic violence. Of this work Moreano says, "It is extremely rewarding to help heal those wounds and allow these women to move on with their lives." In 1999, Dr. Edwin Moreano, an accomplished plastic surgeon, founded the Medical Mission to the Middle of the World. Each year, this humanitarian effort brings together a group of volunteers in the healthcare field who travel to Latin America to provide free surgeries to those in need. Moreano, who was born in Ecuador and grew up in New York, started the mission to contribute his expertise to under-privileged people in his homeland where healthcare is a luxury most cannot afford. Over the years, he and a team of doctors with various medical specialties, nurses and other medical professionals, many from Winthrop University Hospital in Mineola, have made a difference in countless lives performing surgeries to correct facial deformities, burn damage and sight and hearing problems. "My inspiration was seeing firsthand kids with facial deformities from birth defects or trauma in the streets of Ecuador and the Caribbean," Moreano says. "In the United States, these children would have been repaired at an early age and would not have to grow up with facial deformities, isolated from the mainstream and with poor self-esteem." Moreano, 37, has received countless awards for his volunteer contributions, including: the Borough of Queens' Citation of Honor; the Ecuadorian Civic Committee of New Jersey's 2004 Man of the Year Award; pro-clamations from the State of New Jersey and City of New York; and the Keys to Miami-Dade County in Florida. He heads Moreano Plastic Surgery, P.C. in Jackson Heights and is chief of facial plastic and reconstructive surgery and head and neck surgery at Queens Long Island Medical Group in Forest Hills. He is also an attending surgeon at Winthrop University Hospital and clinical assistant professor of facial plastic surgery at the State University of New York at Stony Brook. - Claire Curry Copyright © 2007, Newsday Inc.